Dominion of Satiety, a skill he earned after enduring a torturous period of starvation. Zach had the need of eating unique ingredients which made him think of trying the stick insect as his first one for this journey. But after that reveal from the giant stick insect, his appetite wasn’t ready to digest a nightmare in his belly.

Zach stood his ground, surrounded at all sides. He attacked, cutting another one down, and returned to his previous position. He kept himself calm, remembering the training he had over the years. Calculating his every move, every swing, and every step he took. Zach could not go wild like the heroes in their fairy tales as he knew the reality of it. To make things worse, he was a bit rusty with the sword after abandoning it for a while.

Luckily for him, his foes were slow giant stick insects, and uncoordinated. His sword swung more frequently as confidence started to build in him, brick by brick. He couldn’t be any gladder to have great target practices as by far these stick insects were definitely better than the stationary Lord of Straw.

The giant stick insects closed in on Zach, retaliating over the massacre of their swarm. Under their hardened bark-like head, there was no show of anger but underneath, the instinct to live and eat drove them forward.

Zach noticed the circle around him started to shrink, leaving him less space as the fight went on. He eyed between the spaces of the giant stick insects and noticed the duo, Mathias, and Calrin had their own trouble to deal with. It was enough to tell him, he was on his own. Zach slashed in an arc, nicking them by the skin, and putting them off at a distance. But it wasn’t enough. Despite their slowness, the giant stick insects showed no fear to a single young man.

“Fuck it,” Zach whispered under his breath. Waiting was not an option. He rather bled while fighting than be caged and getting devoured by these disgusting stick-mouth monsters. Zach yelled a battle cry, bolstering his will in doing the opposite of what he was used to. His blade met their flesh. Cutting them in a single swipe as if there were no armor for these creatures. He mowed them down in a straight line. The crunching noises of the dead insects under his boots were louder than the cry of his blade, ripping the air, cleaving the insects’ flesh. By the time seven were dead in his wake, a message greeted him as another level gained under his belt. Zach didn’t hesitate. Placing those four new points evenly between Strength and Perception. The boost was felt at the get-go and Zach continued his killing spree.

But he alone was not enough. His shield smashed and his sword slashed, yet they were too many. He shouted. Pain erupted on his left arm as his shield got stuck in between the split halves of the insect's grotesque mouth. One of its jagged fangs managed to prick at his forearm, and he saw those other rows of teeth trying to reach the rest of his arm. Zach was alarmed. He let go of his shield and swung his sword hard. He cleaved it into two as a sudden strength surged from within him.

Zach was stronger, and faster. The speed of his blade turned up by a notch as if something clicked inside of him. This sudden change turned the tide, and Zach gave death to them all. He had long abandoned the technique and detail of his swordsmanship. Swinging the sword purely by the strength of his arms and the instinct of killing his foes. By the time the whole swarm laid underneath the soles of his boots, another level was rightfully earned.

His breath was laborious, and his eyes were hazy. He saw the result of what he did and he questioned how he was capable of this destruction. Zach knew that in this life, death was common. But he had never killed so many, and not with the purpose of eating them. The sheer numbers astounded him as it was incomparable to the wingless hornets he killed at the beginning.

Zach snapped out of his daze and took a look at his status.

Name: Zachary Gardwin

Level: 5/50

Species: Human

Title: -

Class: -

HP: 211/250

MP: 100/100

SP: 80/80

Strength: 17(+3)

Vitality: 8

Defense: 5

Agility: 18(+3)

Perception: 8

Intelligence: 10

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Spirit: 6

Charisma: 7

Point: 4

Skill: Phlegmatic Will(Lv.Max), Living with the Pain(Lv.Max), Value of Water(Lv.Max), Dominion of Satiety(Lv.Max)

Rather than the new points, the extra three points on Strength and Agility caught his interest. He stared at them, trying to figure out what these points meant. But then it vanished. Returning the numbers back to their original state. Zach frowned seeing it, and then he remembered something after accidentally glancing at the skill section.

‘It’s Living with the Pain,’ he thought. Bringing it up again, and reading the effect once more. Then he realized how stupid he was for being this forgetful. He sighed heavily before grinning like an idiot, and it didn’t take him long to test this valuable skill of his.

Zach held his breath and carefully tried to nick the end of his pinky finger. But a whistle made him jump.

“You really made a mess,” Mathias said. His hands were behind his back marveling at the dead giant stick insects Zach killed. Then he belatedly noticed the glare from Zach. “What?” Mathias asked.

“Nothing,” he grumbled. Glancing to the other side, seeing the burnt ground along with perhaps ashes of Mathias’ kills. “You didn’t even break a sweat.”

“Well thank you,” Mathias said. “As you can see I have a very capable shield.” He smiled and took a brief glance at Calrin who was on the ground. From the look of it, Calrin probably did the heavy lifting in terms of defense. “And a good distraction.” Mathias turned his gaze at Zach. “Never knew you’re the selfless type. So should I count on you again if there’s a need for bait?” Mathias asked. His grin was awfully annoying.

“I recalled someone called me a Master,” Zach said.

“And I remembered that person denied the such title,” Mathias clapped back, and again with that irksome grin.

“I hate you, man,” Zach said. Walking back to where Calrin was.

“Well you’re not the first,” Mathias slyly said.

Zach ignored that last part from Mathias and checked on Calrin. The boy was a bit breathless, but the lad was doing fine. He also came to know that Calrin and Mathias reached level four while Zach was at five. It made him wonder at what degree was counted as a collaborative effort for a proper experience share. Him, fighting all alone in the midst of the swarm was perhaps labeled as fighting solo and not as a distraction. He even questioned whether distraction was inside the scope of teamwork, and for now, he regarded it as not.

Another thing he discovered was that each time he earned a level, there was a bonus added to health points. After a bit of simple subtraction, he found out ten points were automatically given after earning a new level without any changes in the Vitality or Defense stats.

But the biggest surprise from this whole fight was the difficulty of the monsters. Yes, if he got cleanly bitten it would be worse, but the slowness of the creature itself gave a big advantage to those who fought them. If he had numbers by his side, these stick insects would be a piece of cake. He even could say the same about the wingless hornet. Killing them was easy as long as you could dodge or block those stingers. In his own opinion, he saw the wingless hornet as the perfect target for an archer while these stick insects were the best target for a knight or bladed weapon user, and it got him thinking.

‘For a supposed war of the world, they really made it beginner-friendly,’ Zach thought. In the beginning, he figured there would be a bloodbath as this new world would weed out the weak, leaving the strongest to survive. But so far, it was pretty lenient. He had a hunch, things wouldn’t be pretty after level ten or so, considering that was the point where beginners truly left their nest for the real deal.

“You think we can eat this?” Calrin asked the most forbidden question. Pulling gazes from Zach and Mathias, both had a disgusted look on them, especially the latter.

“Peasants really eat everything, do they?” Mathias said with a look of disgust, apparent on his face.

Zach had a tone-down version of disgust while keeping his comment to himself. Despite how disgusting these insects were, Calrin had a point. In a situation where food was scarce, they could not afford to be picky. Zach swallowed a mouthful as he still couldn’t accept the idea of letting this thing go down his throat.

“Have you eaten something like this?” Zach asked. Hoping Calrin says no.

“I had insects before, but not as big as this,” Calrin said.

Zach was worried about how Calrin phrased his words. He thought shouldn’t the lad be concerned over those jagged teeth of such grotesque flesh? Calrin acted like the appalling visual didn’t bother him at all.

“I think we can try roasting them over a fire and try a nibble of it,” Calrin said.

Mathias was quick to raise his hands, turning his back at Calrin. “You can have it all, pleb,” he said. While Zach could only watch in silence.

Among the dead giant stick insects, Calrin built a fire as his expertise was shown through how fast he did it without any aid of fire steel or the help of others. Before long, a skewer of roasted giant stick insect was readied to be served. Calrin blew at his skewer while noticing prying eyes of Zach.

After all this time, the frown on Zach had never left as his mind couldn’t shed the things he had seen.

“Oh, forgive me, milord,” Calrin said. Realizing something. He handed over the skewer to Zach as their eyes met. “You should have it first, milord.” Calrin smiled.

“Oh, no, I don’t think—” before he could politely decline, Calrin placed the skewer right on Zach’s hand.

“Please have it, milord,” Calrin said. “I know it’s not much, but it’s the least I could do for what you have done for me.”

Now Zach couldn’t say no to that. He saw the sincerity in Calrin’s eyes and it would be so wrong if he outrightly decline such an act of gratitude. “Thank you,” he said. His voice was a bit trembling.

He swallowed a mouthful. Growing anxious by the second. Then an idea popped. “Would you like half of it? It would be wrong of me to just eat this on my own,” Zach said.

“You’re very kind, milord, but you don’t have to,” Calrin said. The smile never ceased. “I’ll make another one in a jiffy.” Calrin was kind but tactless in a sense. As he left to make another skewer, Zach stood at another crossroads which in his mind was far much worse than killing monsters.

‘Should I try it?’ he asked himself. Besides procuring edible food, Zach too was inclined in unearthing the effect of the Dominion of Satiety. In his case it was of the utmost importance as sooner than later, the bonus points attained by the other classes would triumph against his inadequacy of being classless.

For who knows how long he stood there contemplating, he then decided. Another mouthful went down the drain, and Zach went for it.